Walt Disney Pictures & Autodesk ink XGen technology license deal

MUMBAI: Autodesk, Inc. and Walt Disney Pictures have inked an agreement to bring an animation and visual effects technology to the Digital Entertainment Creation community. Autodesk obtained a license with a five-year exclusivity period for the XGen Arbitrary Primitive Generator technology (XGen).

XGen is a comprehensive system for generating arbitrary primitives on a surface. XGen allows techno-artistic access to interpolation in an intuitive manner for artists, empowering them with a framework for primitive generation, which is highly art directable. The genesis of XGen was a collaboration between the WDAS production and software teams to provide its artists with intuitive, creative tools for 3D animation so that they can develop the look and feel of their characters and environments quickly and easily. Walt Disney Pictures’ agreement with Autodesk will enable Autodesk to make this technology available to artists to create digital entertainment.

"A challenge in the visual effects industry continues to be the need to evolve creatively while somehow controlling escalating production costs. Autodesk has been working with Walt Disney Animation Studios to help them innovate faster and to make these technologies more accessible. Digital Entertainment Creation users are sure to benefit from developments designed by industry visionaries and proven in production," said Autodesk Media & Entertainment senior vice president Marc Petit.